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You Can't be Serious

With a vicious spate of mass killings plaguing the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Senate panel is calling on experts to appear before U.S. lawmakers next week. One of them is Hollywood actor and serial activist Ben Affleck, The Cable has learned.

Affleck is slated to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next Wednesday to discuss the troubled central African country of 75 million people. The Argo director has shown a keen interest in Congo in recent years through his philanthropic organization, the Eastern Congo Initiative. But not everyone thinks Affleck's resume qualifies him to testify on Capitol Hill. When the Seattle-based advisory firm working for Affleck, WilliamsWorks, tried to set up a similar event in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, Republicans did not accept, according to a Congressional aide familiar with the matter. "It was floated and turned down," said the aide.

I suppose that I should cut congress some slack on this one, because this is not the most outrageous example of congress considering someone to be an expert on a subject, simply because he or she happened to be a celebrity. I would have to imagine that Affleck managed pick up some knowledge of Africa running his charity, and he almost certainly has more expertise on the subject than most celebrity “expert” witnesses that have been called to testify before congress. You simply must read this article about the most ridiculous examples, if for no other reason than to get a good laugh.

There’s one thing I don’t understand though. Why does congress need to round up expert witnesses, celebrity or not, to testify about Africa, when we got a president that was born in Kenya? Wouldn’t he be the biggest expert of all? Plus, it wouldn’t be inconvenient for him. Whenever he’s not on vacation, or playing golf, he’s practically right next door.